The present invention relates to the field of voice messaging over electronic-mail (E-mail) systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message, which is delivered back to the originator of the incoming message, as an E-mail message.
E-mail systems are widely used for communicating between subscribers of a data communication network (such as the Internet), by the exchange of messages via the network. When a subscriber (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cthe senderxe2x80x9d) wishes to contact another subscriber (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cthe recipientxe2x80x9d), he normally sends a message to the recipient, expecting or without expecting a reply. For example, if the message sent is a question, the sender expects a reply. On the other hand, if the message sent is a notification, the sender at most receives an indication that the message has been successfully received. Normally, messages are exchanged between subscribers through their workstations, and in most cases these messages are textual or pictorial messages, which can be displayed on the display screen of the station of each subscriber. In addition, modern E-mail systems enable the subscriber to attach a data file to his textual message, which can be opened and read by the recipient. Many types of data files can be attached, including audio (e.g., .wav) or video (e.g., .mov) files, that can be played by the recipient, provided his workstation is equipped with the necessary hardware and software.
Advanced telecommunication and wireless technologies also enable subscribers to access their E-mail xe2x80x9cinboxxe2x80x9d, and to read their messages by using a telephone-based interface, rather than a workstation. Such telephone-based interfaces may comprise smart-phones (i.e., a telephone with text and/or Internet capabilities) or cellular phones (which normally have a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)), or regular phones. The recipient has several options to access the content of a selected message. If a smart-phone or a cellular-phone is used, the message can be displayed on the telephone display of the recipient as a textual message. If a regular phone is used, on the other hand, the incoming message can be converted into a voice message (e.g., by activating a xe2x80x9ctext-to-speechxe2x80x9d converter), which is then heard by the recipient.
In some cases, after reading the incoming E-mail message the recipient wishes to reply to the sender not via e-mail using a computer, but rather from a telephone. The recipient has several reply options: The first option is simply to initiate a phone-call to the sender, and talk with him. However, by talking with the sender the recipient xe2x80x9cforcesxe2x80x9d the sender to handle the call at a time which may be inconvenient to him. The second option, which is mostly available in cellular phones, is to send a response message to the sender using Short Message Service (SMS), which is a protocol that allows displaying short messages (typically, up to 160 characters) on the LCD of a cellular phone (or a smart phone), which supports SMS.
When the recipient wishes to type a text reply and to send it from his cellular phone, he uses the phone keypad as an input device, to type the required characters. However, this typing feature is cumbersome, since each key in the keypad usually represents three letters, and the recipient has to xe2x80x9cselectxe2x80x9d each desired letter by xe2x80x9cclickingxe2x80x9d on each key a predetermined number of times, which corresponds to the location of the desired letter among the other letters on this key. In addition, typing errors might occur during multiple clicking.
T9(trademark) Text Input (Tegic Communications, Seattle, USA) offers a relatively quick text input technology for cellular phones. This technology provides the user with an intuitive interface, which requires only one click on a key to type a letter. The text input employs software, which scans a linguistic database to determine a correct word resulting from consequent clicking. However, typing characters by using the keypad still remains awkward to the user. Therefore, a reply method which eliminates the need to compose a textual response message to an incoming E-mail message, by typing characters is greatly needed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,557,659 and 5,717,742 disclose E-mail systems with integrated voice messages, which comprises a message handling systems for sending and retrieving both voice and text messages over a computer network. The voice message, which can be input through a phone, is converted into a digital voice file, which is stored in a memory area that corresponds to the mailbox of the intended recipient. However, this system does not provide the capability of replying by this voice message to an incoming E-mail message.
Tornado Development Inc. (Manhattan Beach, Calif., USA) offers subscribers a voice reply system to e-mail messages by calling a phone number and recording a reply message. However, this system requires a text-to-speech converter for allowing a subscriber to listen to an incoming message using his telephone, and cannot display textual messages on the subscriber""s telephone display.
All the methods described above have not provided a satisfactory solution to the problem of replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response, which overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response, which is delivered back to the sender via E-mail.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response without typing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response, which is recorded through the recipient""s telephone.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.
The present invention is directed to a method for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response. After the recipient reads, or listens to, the incoming E-mail message, voice data containing a recorded voice reply to the incoming E-mail message is generated. An E-mail reply message, which comprises the voice data, is generated and sent to the sender of the incoming E-mail message, as an E-mail reply message. Preferably, the incoming E-mail message is attached to the generated voice data before sending it as a reply message. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the recipient reads incoming E-mail messages from the display of his telephone. According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the recipient listens to the contents of incoming E-mail messages using his telephone.
Preferably, the recipient accesses his mailbox, and thereafter a list of incoming E-mail messages destined to him is presented, from which he selects a single incoming message. The content of the selected incoming message is presented to the recipient, and in response, a voice reply message originated by the recipient is recorded. A voice reply data-file containing the voice reply message is generated, and then used to compose a reply E-mail message. The composed reply E-mail message is then sent to the sender of the incoming E-mail message. Delivery of the incoming message to the recipient may be carried out by displaying text and/or image(s) on the telephone display of the recipient or by converting the content of the selected incoming E-mail message to voice data and playing that voice data to the recipient via his telephone.
Preferably, during the reply procedure a voice reply data-file is generated and the incoming E-mail message is saved in a memory. A portion of the data contained in the incoming E-mail message, or the whole message, is extracted from the memory and a reply E-mail message is then composed from the combination of the voice reply data-file and the extracted portion.
The invention also encompasses a system for replying to an incoming E-mail message with a corresponding voice message response. The system comprises a display or audio apparatus for reading the incoming E-mail message, apparatus for generating voice data containing a recorded voice reply to the incoming E-mail message, and apparatus for sending the generated voice data to the sender of the incoming E-mail message as an E-mail reply message. The system may further comprise apparatus for attaching the incoming E-mail message to the generated voice data, prior to sending it. The system comprises apparatus for allowing the recipient to read incoming E-mail messages from the display of his telephone or to listen to incoming E-mail messages using his telephone. Such apparatus is conventional in the art, and is therefore not described herein in detail, for the sake of brevity.